The Consultative Council on Obstetric and Paediatric Mortality and Morbidity (CCOPMM) requests that all deaths are reported within 28 days.
1. Notify us
Access our online reporting form for:
You may submit information at the time of notification
2. Submit your review
On completion of a death notification you will receive a response from CCOPMM that includes access to a SharePoint folder to upload documents and reviews to. The documents required to complete a CCOPMM report are specified in the following checklists:
- Stillbirth report checklist
- Neonatal death report checklist
- Post neonatal infant death report checklist
- Child and adolescent death report checklist
3. Review the death
Health services must review every perinatal, paediatric and maternal death that occurs in their hospital, as well as deaths elsewhere when the patient was predominately treated at one of their hospitals.
The extent of a death review depends on the type of death, and if it was expected or unexpected.
All internal reviews should be submitted to CCOPMM as part of step 2.
Health services that provide perinatal services should review perinatal deaths in line with the Centre of Research Excellence in Stillbirth (Stillbirth CRE) and Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand (PSANZ) 2024 Care Around Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Clinical Practice Guideline.
4. CCOPMM case review
Stillbirth and neonatal death
Once all information is in, CCOPMM reviews all deaths to determine:
- if the death was avoidable
- any contributing factors, including potential deficiencies in clinical care or system-wide faults
- classification
- any recommendations for improvement
- preventable factors such as smoking in pregnancy, maternal age, family violence, and other social and demographic factors.
Post-neonatal infant, child and adolescent death review
CCOPMM receives death certificates from Births, Deaths and Marriages and seeks information from hospital case records, doctors, pathology departments, and coronial services.
CCOPMM reviews complex or contentious cases to:
- classify the death as one of:
- determined at birth
- sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI), including sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
- unintentional injury
- acquired disease
- intentional injury
- undetermined.
- identify potential preventable factors
- make recommendations on clinical or system improvements.
What do we do with this information?
CCOPMM reports annually to share the lessons and improvements from perinatal, infant, child and adolescent deaths in Victoria.
Your information is confidential
The confidentiality of information provided to CCOPMM is strictly protected under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008. CCOPMM members cannot share any documents or information to a third party.